Game on: Christie to raise cash for Malloy’s ouster

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Maybe the George Washington Bridge will be closed — wishful thinking for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Malloy’s New Jersey nemesis, Chris Christie, will invade Connecticut later this month for a big ticket fundraiser in support of Malloy’s ouster in the midterm elections, Hearst Connecticut Media has learned.

Christie, a polarizing figure who is entertaining a White House run in 2016, is scheduled to visit the $13 million estate of a former hedge fund manager in Greenwich’s exclusive Belle Haven section on July 21.

The price point for tickets ranges from $10,000 for a VIP host to a $1,000 minimum for supporters — there’s a $250 option for young Republicans 35 and under.

The event is being hosted by Brian Olson, a co-founder of Viking Global Investors, a hedge fund that manages more than $10 billion in investments.

Olson is a board member and former chairman of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), a charter school advocacy group that has embraced some of Malloy’s education initiatives.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Governor’s Victory Trust, a special account set up by the Connecticut Republican Party for the November election and has the fingerprints of the party’s endorsed candidate Tom Foley on it.

Foley’s finance director, who has been embedded as a fundraiser for the state GOP, is the point of contact for the event.

There is no love lost between Malloy and Christie, who campaigned for Foley in 2010 when the governor’s race was decided by fewer than 6,500 votes.

The two governors have traded zingers on the talk show circuit, a rivalry that intensified when Christie became chairman of the Republican Governors Association for this election cycle.

Christie’s visit to Connecticut coincides with a torrent of criticism of the New Jersey governor by gun control advocates for vetoing a bill that would have reduced the cap on gun magazines from 15 rounds to 10 rounds of ammunition in the Garden State.

The chorus of critics is being led by Mark Barden, who lost his son Daniel in the Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Barden has said that Christie refused to meet with him before vetoing the measure.

Neil Vigdor